Lying Beside You
by Batbabe1
Summary: (One-Shot) Introspective piece, TriniZack


Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers or anything related to it, someone else does. And I doubt they would want to share with me.

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A/N: This takes place about a year after Jason, Zack, and Trini left for the peace conference. It's somewhat related to my other fic, "Falling From Grace", but you don't have to read that to understand what's going on here. Enjoy!

Oh, and please review!

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**Lying Beside You**

_By: Batbabe_

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Sometimes this job was more trouble than it was worth.

Trini had spent the entire day discussing (though it was actually more like arguing) a rather trivial issue with several of the other delegates. It was days like this that made her glad she was a patient person, though her patience had been sorely tested.

When the meeting was over, the former yellow ranger had practically ran back to her room and thrown herself on her bed. She was filled with frustration and knew that she just needed to relax, but it was hard to put the events of the day out of her mind. She briefly thought about going to Zack's room, to see if he could calm her down, but decided against it when she remembered that he wouldn't be back from the fund raiser that he had helped organize today. He had been so excited about it, she couldn't help but smile as she remembered his enthusiasm.

/I'll see him later, I can wait until then./ She thought to herself, closing her eyes.

A sigh escaped her as she again wished that Jason were still here. Trini knew that he would have been able to make her forget her frustrations. But he was in Florida now, visiting Kimberly. A pang of sadness shot through her as she thought about her best friend. They weren't as close as they used to be, most likely due to the distance between them and the changes in lifestyle, so to speak. Trini knew firsthand how difficult it was for a ranger to have a close relationship with a civilian, even if they knew about their powers. It was hard to keep in touch with people when you constantly had to fight off monsters.

The former ranger couldn't blame her friend for being unable to keep in close contact, though she couldn't help the jealousy she felt when she thought about how Kim and Jason had remained close, despite the distance. Of course, they had a very different relationship than she and Trini did. And it wasn't as though she couldn't understand, with her and Zack's relationship the way it was.

If someone had asked her if she and Zack would ever get together while she was a ranger, she would have told them they were crazy. While it was true that they had been close, it was a strictly friendship type of relationship. After all, Zack had been crazy about Angela and Trini had serious crushes on Ritchie and Billy. If she had seen herself with one of her fellow rangers, it would have been Billy, by far. They had been so close, and Trini seemed to be the only one that truly understood him. There was a time when she had seriously considered trying to push their relationship forward, but she knew that if it was meant to happen, it would.

Obviously, it wasn't meant to be.

Then Ritchie came along. She had been attracted to him the moment she laid eyes on him, not unlike when Kimberly had first seen Tommy. The thoughts of that made her chuckle. She had thought that she would never react that way to a guy, that she wasn't as concerned about the outside as much as the inside. Boy, was she wrong. Unfortunately, neither she nor he had had the courage to really ask each other out, so the relationship had never progressed beyond friendship. Such was the story of her life, it seemed.

And then she and the two guys had left for the peace conference. She had always been interested in politics and in activism, so the program had been a natural fit. Zack also seemed to adapt to the change quite well, easily making friends as well as a difference. They had both enjoyed their time there immensely.

Jason had been another story. He never really seemed to adapt to the changes in his life, and didn't seem to enjoy the work they did as much as the other delegates. His new role never really fit him. It probably didn't help that she and Zack had become so close, effectively making the former red ranger a third wheel. Add to that the fact that Jason had taken giving up their powers the hardest, and you had one unhappy camper. While she and the former black ranger had acted as rangers, Jason had truly been one. Not to say that Trini and Zack weren't truly rangers, but there was a difference. Jason lived to be a ranger, it was who he was, and it was immensely hard for him to give up.

She couldn't say she was all that surprised when he had suddenly resigned from the conference, though she had been surprised by his choice of destination afterwards. He had gone straight to Florida, to see Kimberly. Trini could only hope that it worked out for him and that he could find happiness again.

As for herself, she was content to remain at the conference until she went off to college. She knew what she wanted to do with her life and felt blessed to be given this remarkable opportunity. Being a member of a peace summit would certainly look good on her resume after she got her degree in political science.

Zack had said that he would go to school wherever she wanted to go. It didn't matter to him where they went, as long as they could stay together. She sighed contentedly as she thought back to the moment he said that. It was the first time he had told her he loved her.

They had become extremely close upon arriving in Switzerland, so close that they gradually realized that they were now more than friends. Much more. The two teens had easily bonded over mutual enthusiasm and dedication to their new roles and became inseparable. Since he and Angela had long since ended their relationship, and Trini hadn't been in one at all, they had been free to express their feelings for each other. Though those feelings had crept up on them so gradually, they hadn't even realized that they were more than friends for a long time.

It was actually Jason that pushed the two together, in the end. He had seen the bond between them that they themselves couldn't. One evening, he arranged for his friends to spend some time together in a romantic setting and they had responded in just the way he had intended. That had been the night of their first kiss.........

The next day, Trini had eagerly called Kimberly to tell her the good news. The pink ranger's reaction was simply relief that they had finally saw what was right in front of them, having heard about the progressions in their relationship from the former red ranger.

In the months since, the two of them had become happier than either thought possible. She knew that she would spend the rest of her life with him, and that they would continue to be happy together.

It was then that she heard a knock at her door. Instinctively, she knew it would be him and a grin spread across her face. She practically jumped off the bed as she rushed over to meet him.

He opened the door and was greeted by the former yellow ranger embracing him eagerly. He was slightly surprised by her enthusiasm, since they had seen each other just that morning, but was pleased nonetheless. Zack found that when the two of them weren't together, he didn't feel completely whole, which had been a completely new experience for him. It simply proved to him how much Trini had come to mean to him.

"I take it you're happy to see me...." He said, jokingly.

She pulled back slightly to look at him, a sly smile creeping onto her face. "You have no idea...." She began before pulling him to sit on the bed with her.

"Well, would you rather tell me here, or over dinner?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her, biting his bottom lip slightly. Trini wondered why she didn't realize how adorable he was earlier.

"Knowing you, it might be best to go ahead and get something to eat first." She laughed, remembering his unquenchable stomach. He just smiled back.

"Anything you say." He paused as he took her hand to lead her out of the room. "Your wish is my command, remember?"

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End file.
